Monthly Archives: March 2018

Some bad news for Juelz Santana was reported on Monday. The Harlem spitter will remain locked up after a judge ruled that his proposed bail package wasn’t enough to warrant letting him out.

Judge James Clark shut down the rapper’s bail on weapons and drug charges. While the specifics of the package weren’t discussed, its known that the Diplomats founding member has been in custody since Mar. 12, when he turned himself in regarding charges for allegedly possessing a gun and drugs in his luggage at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Santana’s ex and baby mama Kimbella expressed her unwavering support for the iconic New York rapper in an Instagram post last week.

“I know it’s hard my love but you will be home soon! It’s all in God’s hands, there’s a reason for everything that happens in life.. even though this is a difficult time you are LOVED by many!! GOD’s got something BIG planned for you but you gotta get through this first, have that clear & clean mindset. I’m here always in your corner paving the way to greatness! You’ll be home soon to those who love you so much!! Chin up, prayers up, GOD is the greatest!!”

According to a confidential toxicology report obtained by The Associated Press, Prince had exceedingly high amounts of Fentanyl in his system at the time of his death. The legendary musician was found alone and unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park estate on April 21, 2016.

The report showed that Prince had 450 micrograms per kilogram of Fentanyl in his liver, adding that 69 micrograms per kilogram “seem to represent overdose or fatal toxicity cases.” The report added that there was a second lethal dose of undigested Fentanyl in his stomach at the time of his death.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets Saturday for March for Our Lives events across the U.S. — the biggest set to happen in Washington, D.C.

Busload after busload has filled the nation’s capital with students from across the country, including some from as far away as California and Minnesota.

The march was announced by students days after the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and since then, more than 800 sister marches have been planned.

Events are scheduled in every U.S. state and on every continent, all with the same mission: ending gun violence and taking up gun-control legislation. Organizers expect 500,000 to descend on the nation’s capital, including many from Parkland.

Mei-Ling Ho-Shing arrived in D.C. on Thursday. She was one of the many who were inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the attack, which left 17 dead. The junior said she plans to link arms with her classmates and march in hopes of changing laws so what happened at her school will never happen again.

“Douglas is in the house. We’re here and coming to make a change,” she said, adding “this isn’t a trending topic. This is people’s lives. We’re not going to stop after this. When we go home we’re still going to be fighting for this.”

The shooting instantly reignited the gun-control debate. But the students in Parkland — who spoke with a loud voice and amassed an enormous following in the hours and days after the shooting — seemed to disrupt the typical cycle after an attack and demanded an end to gun violence.

Within a month of the rampage, several companies cut ties with the National Rifle Association and stopped offering discounts, students from 3,000 schools held a nationwide walkout, and Florida’s governor signed a comprehensive bill that included tightening gun laws.

Jaclyn Corin, one of the core group of Parkland students leading the #NeverAgain movement and organizing the marches, said it’s been unbelievable to see the support around the nation and how thousands of students have rallied for the cause.

She said the outpouring is a “constant reminder that even though this shooting was a horrible tragedy, we’ll make these changes and see some light come out of the bad.”

Corin, 17, said preparations for the march have been stressful, but she and the others are excited. She said this march is just the beginning of what they hope to accomplish.

“We want to continue what we’re doing, especially leading up to November,” she said. “We want every young person to register to vote and head to the polls, no matter who they’re voting for or what party they’ve voting for.”

Students in Parkland have teamed up with other student organizers across the country planning sister events and offered tool kits to help them get organized.

Ahead of one of those planned marches in Milwaukee, students rallied outside a school to demand action from lawmakers and gain support throughout the community.

“It is our time as youth in the community to make a difference,” said Marvell Reed, a 10th-grader at Barack Obama School of Career & Technical Education. “It is our time to stand up and speak out to our state and local politicians.”

Two friends of Christiana Duarte, one of the 58 killed in the October shooting in Las Vegas, are also planning a rally in Tucson.

Hannah DeSanto and Jessica Hopkins, both college students, say it was “horrifying” to see another mass shooting after losing their friend. They say the time to act and see changes is now — not after another attack.

“We’ve let it settle a lot more than the students in Florida have, and for people to be saying, ‘They’re acting too soon, they haven’t let it sink in or had time to heal,’ it’s frustrating to hear that because I wish something was done sooner to prevent that Florida shooting, to prevent the Vegas shooting,” DeSanto said.

Jay-Z has always been a man of the people. The Brooklyn bred rap legend has made his socio-economic and political views tremendously clear over the last decade. Whether that be by voicing his opinions over records like “Murder To Excellence,” or publicly supporting President Barack Obama during his two terms in office, Jay has been pushing African-American culture like it’s his job. Now, the 48-year-old rapper is bringing his docu-series about Trayvon Martin to the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Jay will be screening Rest In Power: The Trayvon Martin Story at the festival, and afterward, Martin’s parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin will address live. The documentary claims to offer a “definitive look at one of the most talked-about, controversial events of the last decade.”

Jay-Z’s documentary is based on the book Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin, which was written by his parents after their child was infamously murdered by Geroge Zimmerman. Martin’s death increased the national spotlight on the unnecessary deaths of young black children in America.

Jay-Z also famously produced Time: The Kalief Browder Story, a short docuseries about Kalief Browder. Young Browder was jailed for three years, and spent two of them in solitary confinement, for allegedly stealing a backpack. He took his own life after a tumultuous case surrounding the false charges led him to lose his mental stability.

R&B singer Bobby V, formerly known as Bobby Valentino, is in hot water again. Last year, the “Slow Down” singer was accused of refusing to pay a transgendered prostitute for her services. Now, Bobby is being accused of sexually assaulting a woman that lives near his residence.

According to TMZ, law enforcement sources state that a woman filed a police report in Cobb County, Georgia on Monday (March 19). The report states that the woman was raped the night before and that Bobby V was the culprit. Details regarding the rape, such as the location, circumstances, and time, have yet to be revealed by police, who are being cautious about information being leaked to the press.

Bobby V’s camp is lashing back at the charges. A rep from Bobby’s team stated that they will be fighting back “against what appears to be a weak yet calculated attempt to obtain financial gain through ulterior motives in the matter.” The rep also stated that “Bobby takes any allegation against women very seriously. However, false allegations damage true victims of sexual abuse.” Although the rep claims that the alleged victim never contacted Bobby for extortion money, he maintains his position that all allegations are false.

After aide Rob Porter departed the White House amid accusations he had physically abused two ex-wives, President Trump tweeted a question: “Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”

Well, Trump is about to get a dose of it.

On Tuesday, a Manhattan judge dismissed Trump’s effort to deny due process for Summer Zervos, ruling she can go ahead with Case 150522/2017. That is the suit in which Zervos charges Trump defamed her by calling her a liar. She was one of more than a dozen women who accused him of groping and or kissing them.

Trump had sought through his lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, to block the suit, arguing in December that a sitting president cannot be sued in state court. Kasowitz further argued that Trump was too busy leading the free world, and that Trump’s remarks were “political speech” covered by the First Amendment.

In an uncommonly clear 18-page ruling three months in careful making, Judge Jennifer Schechter rejected all that. She offered a simple principle that is a pillar of America’s true greatness.

“The President of the United States has no immunity and is ‘subject to the laws’ for purely private acts,” Schechter wrote in summarizing the Supreme Court ruling.

She concluded, “In the end, there is absolutely no authority for dismissing or staying civil action related purely to unofficial conduct because defendant is President of the United States.”

The case will go ahead, and Trump may find himself being deposed under oath about Zervos’ allegations of sexual assault. That puts the Zervos case in a whole other league than the Stormy Daniels scandal, which involves only consensual sex with a woman who took money not to talk and now wants to talk.

And Zervos cannot be bought off. She is only seeking $2,914 in damages, so she is not after a monetary settlement. She wants either an admission or a jury verdict.

In her ruling on Zervos v. Trump, Schechter found further legal grounds for Zervos’ particular suit by citing a New York State Court of Appeals case which held that a college basketball coach was liable for branding two players money-hungry liars for accusing one of his staff of molesting them.

“In Davis v Boeheim, the Court of Appeals determined that a defamation action could be maintained against a defendant who called individuals claiming to have been victims of sexual abuse liars and stated that he believed that they were motivated by money to go public,” Schechter wrote.

In that case, the plaintiffs did not have to prove they had been molested to establish that they had been defamed. They needed only to show they had not come forward simply seeking personal gain as the coach alleged.

Schechter cites in her decision Trump’s repeated accusations that Zervos and the other women had come forward either seeking fame or at the instigation of the Hillary Clinton campaign.

As the decision notes, Trump tweeted that the allegations were “totally made up nonsense to steal the election.”

The decision further quotes Trump at an October, 2016 rally in Pennsylvania:

“Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign, total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All these liars will be sued after the election is over.”

Trump is now the one being sued and the judge notes that Zervos need not prove that he groped her in the hotel room. She need only show that her version was not completely fabricated and that he has no basis for saying she harbored ulterior motives in making the accusations.

“Defendant—the only person other than plaintiff who knows what happened between the two of them—repeatedly accused plaintiff of dishonesty not just in his opinion but as a matter of fact,” the judge notes. “He not only averred that plaintiff told ‘phony stories’ and issued statements that were ‘totally false’ and ‘fiction,’ he insisted that the events ‘never happened’ and that the allegations were ‘100% false [and] made up.’”

One witness or bit of evidence establishing that Zervos was in that hotel room — for instance a receipt that would confirm the claim in her suit that he ordered one very expensive club sandwich for the two of them — and Trump likely loses, no matter what happened there.

Schechter rejects any argument that Trump was just engaging in “political speech” that is protected by the Constitution.

“That defendant’s statements about plaintiff’s veracity were made while he was campaigning to become President of the United States, does not make them any less actionable,” the decision says.

The model/entrepreneur let it be known that pair broke up last year in August. Though the former Love & Hip Hop New York couple has gone through some personal trials, Kimbella’s loyalty has been unwavering. Being the father of her children to her children has played a great role in the love Santana’s ex still has for him.

She posted about the rapper:

“I know it’s hard my love but you will be home soon! It’s all in God’s hands, there’s a reason for everything that happens in life.. even though this is a difficult time you are LOVED by many!! GOD’s got something BIG planned for you but you gotta get through this first, have that clear & clean mindset. I’m here always in your corner paving the way to greatness! You’ll be home soon to those who love you so much!! Chin up, prayers up, GOD is the greatest!!”

The OG Diplomat entered a plea of not guilty to two state charges of weapons and a drug possession charges after authorities at Newark Liberty International Airport found a .38 caliber gun and oxycodone pills. Thoughts will still be Juelz has he’s expected to be in court for his hearing on April 9th.